About an hour after I submitted this newsletters last post, about Off-Season reading and stalled WNBA league updates, I realized that the most exciting action was starting the very next day: the second season of Unrivaled Basketball, the 3x3 league started in 2025 by, and for, the players.
From a WNBA fan perspective, this league is massively important: it allows players to earn further income domestically, rather than traaveling abroad in the off-season to find off-season wages; and it adds positive pressure to the WNBA to give more and better options to players to have the continue to prioritize the W instead of alternative leagues.
From a basketball fan perspective, it is an unbelievable blessing: a different league, taking place in-between major season, with players you know and love — and players you don’t know much about yet — forming new combinations of teams, playing with different and exciting rules, and actually playing hard and giving a damn about winning, all while getting paid good wages.
Everybody is winning with Unrivaled, and we can enjoy the product without hesitation — a rarity in this billionaire-ran sports world we are currently living in.
How to Watch
(From ESPN:) Games will be played in a doubleheader format on Sundays, Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. Games on Fridays and Mondays will air on TNT and truTV and will also be available to stream on HBO Max. Saturday and Sunday games will be available on truTV and HBO Max. Games typically last about an hour.
Personally, I am signing up for HBO Max for a couple of months so that I can watch all of these Unrivaled games, have access to all of the replays on the HBO Max app, and also so that I can watch season two of The Pitt, my favorite show of 2025 that I would recommend to anyone (who is older than, say, fifteen).
Warning: the replays are only available on HBO Max for 24 hours; plan accordingly!
Why to Watch, as a Portland Fire Fan
I couldn’t think of a better introduction to learning about individual players than watching Unrivaled. The 3x3 nature means much more time touching the ball, having to create offense by yourself, and playing versatile defense. Every player is on an island, and every player’s style, strengths, and weaknesses are on bigger display than in the WNBA.
Plus, team allegiances are removed from the equation. Root for whoever you want, for whatever reason you want!
I am currently leaning toward the Breeze as my favorite watch, because they have Paige Beckers (my first favorite college player) and Dominique Malonga, the next/current face of the huge talent wave of non-American players that are helping the W grow. Throw in two of the most popular college players from the past couple seasons in Cam Brink, Kate Martin, and Rickea Jackson, plus a great backup guard in Aari McDonald, and baby, you got a stew goin’.
I hope to have the time and technological freedom to create some clips and videos of cool stuff I see in the games, and of players that I enjoy seeing more of. As always, time will tell.
In the meantime, I’ll see you in the group chats.
Other Info
How Teams in Unrivaled Were Made
(From ESPN) In early November, all eight coaches met in Miami to draft teams. Players were divided into six position-based pods of guards, wings and forwards. Through six rounds, picks alternated among the eight teams. The two new clubs, the Breeze and Hive, were awarded the top two picks. The four playoff teams from last season — the Rose, Lunar Owls, Vinyl and Laces — each were allowed to protect two players who were not eligible to be drafted. The Phantom and Mist, the two teams that didn't make the 2025 playoffs, were allowed to protect one player each.
Format and Rules
(From ESPN) Unrivaled will play in the renovated and newly named Sephora Arena. The league added 15,000 square feet for player facilities — including a second practice court — and 150 seats to the game arena to bring the capacity from 850 to 1,000 seats. The court has the same dimensions as before: a 49.2-by-72-foot condensed full court rather than the half court (36 feet by 49 feet) used at the Olympics for 3x3. The WNBA is played on a 94-by-50-foot court.
The rules are unchanged from Unrivaled's inaugural season. Each game will have three seven-minute quarters and a fourth quarter played toward a "winning score." The winning score will be determined by adding 11 points to the leading team's score through three quarters. For example, if the score is 50-48 heading into the final quarter, the first team to reach 61 points wins. There will never be overtime. Games can be won on free throws, which is how the Rose won the championship last season.
When a player is fouled she will get only one free throw. The single shot is worth two points for a foul on a 2-point field goal or three points if the foul occurred on a 3-point attempt. A free throw attempt after a foul on a made basket is worth one point.
Minor Collective Bargaining Agreement News
This came in as I was drafting this midday on January 8th:
